Aircraft McDonnell Douglas crashes a lot??

Question

ive been looking at the airplane crash statistics and noticed a lot of McDonnell Douglas crashes or is this just me? if so then why they still keep producing/buying this aircraft. shouldnt it be banned?

Answer 1

It should.

We need to raise the standards of our pilots and planes.

Answer 2

Well, to answer your question, McDonnell Douglas aircraft are no longer produced.  The last aircraft designed by MD, the Boeing 717, rolled of the assembly line two years ago, and was delivered to Airtran.  The 717 is very modern, with a glass cockpit and updated electronics than the MD-80.  And, if aircraft are properly maintained, they can last a very long time.  Northwest's DC-9's were built in the 60's and are still being used, mainly because they were properly maintained.  The majority of crashes of all aircraft are caused by pilot error and improper maintenance, such as that of Alaska Airlines 261, an MD-80, not aircraft design.  All MD models were reliable initially and were well designed with safety in mind.  

Answer 3

md-80/md-83 have bad safety ratings

i think 3 or four have had emergencies since 2001

Answer 4

yeah. you need to keep in mind the amount of MD and Boeing planes flying.

MD planes, are 60, 70s designs, and are passing the end of their useful life as planes. It's old technology, with old materials, that's why it suffers more accidents.

Boeing has acquired MD some time ago.

Since 1999, no more older design MD-80s have been made/assembled/delivered.

Even before that, they stopped producing MD-11 and the like

but more because of the lack of popularity of those planes.

You can't just throw away a commercial airplane. It costs a LOT. Just because there's a newer plane, or because its getting a little old, a plane isn't something you can throw away without economic consequences. Airlines won't do it unless they're forced to or until the old planes become too expensive to operate, or when the new planes pay for themselves in high ridership and low in operation/maintenance costs.

Old planes are retired from major airlines at around 20, 30 years old. But after that, they're either scrapped for parts or sold to African nations and they KEEP flying over there! ( there are probably many more accidents in Africa that we know about)



Boeing's new planes don't crash as much, in fact, the next gen of 737 haven't had a single serious accident yet.

Answer 5

YEAH they know............

Answer 6

Ok, here we go again.

According to the NTSB, between the beginning of 2000 and the end of June 2007 there were a total of 89 incidents and accidents involving McDonnel Douglas aircraft in scheduled operations, 4 of which involved fatalities. In the same time frame there were a total of 345 incidents and accidents involving Boeing aircraft in scheduled operations, 30 of which involved fatalities (3 of those fatal accidents involved 737NG aircraft).

During that period there were a total of 809 incidents and accidents involving any aircraft in scheduled operations, 75 of which involved fatalities. Let's see. That means MD aircraft were involved in 11% of all accidents and incidents since 2000 and 5% of the accidents involving fatalities. Boeing aircraft were involved in 42% and 40% respectively.

Stating that an aircraft should be banned because of a few recent high-profile accidents is foolish. Before we start pointing fingers, let's wait and see what the investigations determine caused the accidents.

Answer 7

I believe you're trying to over-simplify the situation, and I have no idea where you get your statistics. You must understand that there is never one single cause of a crash, and McDonnell Douglas made excellent aircraft. If they didn't, there wouldn't be so many of them flying after all these years. American Airlines alone flies 300 MD-80 aircraft, that's nearly half of their 650 aircraft fleet.

If you check, these crashes are more often than not some foreign carrier that is not subject to the strict requirements of the FAA, and inadequate maintenance is one of their major problems. It is no different if you failed to maintain you car properly and that caused a crash. According to the NTSB about half of all crashes involve pilot error. That has nothing to do with the aircraft manufacturer either.

According to the NTSB website, in 2008 so far, of all scheduled carriers worldwide there were 6 fatal airplane accidents, 5 of them foreign carriers. I have no idea where you come up with 3. In the same time period including all types of incidents and fatal or non-fatal accidents, of all scheduled carriers worldwide there were 57 incidents/accidents. Of these 8 were Airbus, 5 Bombardier, 29 Boeing, 3 McDonnell Douglas, and 12 of various other types of aircraft. Of these major manufacturers, by far McDonnell Douglas had the fewest incidents/accidents.

According to the NTSB website, in 2007, of all scheduled carriers worldwide there were 9 fatal airplane accidents, all of them foreign carriers. I have no idea where you get "1" from. In the same year including all types of incidents and fatal or non-fatal accidents, of all scheduled carriers worldwide there were 102 incidents/accidents. Of these 15 were Airbus, 10 Bombardier, 46 Boeing, 9 McDonnell Douglas, and 22 of various other types of aircraft. Of these major manufacturers McDonnell Douglas once again had the fewest incidents/accidents.

How does any of these statistics make McDonnell Douglas a bad product that necessitates having them banned? I believe your math and many of your assumptions are fatally flawed.

If you are looking for dispropotionate statistcs in aircraft accidents, then compare the US and Europe to the rest of the world. That's where you'll find cause for concern. There are foreign air carriers that are banned from flying into the US or Europe because of their poor maintenance and safety records. In fact, during a recent training session on Human Factors in Maintenance, we learned that the trend over the last 20 years is most accidents/incidents are because of human error because the aircraft themselves have become so much more reliable. If you want to blame a specific aircraft, then you really have to study the actual cause of each crash and throw out the pilot and maintnance errors before you can even start to pin a crash on the aircraft itself.